For most boards and property managers, a building permit is something the contractor handles. The permit gets pulled, the work gets done, and at some point the project is over. What often goes unnoticed is whether the permit was ever formally closed — and what it means if it wasn't. On structural repair scopes in Miami-Dade and Broward, an unclosed permit creates a title encumbrance that surfaces in unit sales and refinancing, and it leaves the compliance file for 40-year recertification or milestone inspection without the official government record that the work was performed and approved. The permit closeout sequence is four stages, each with specific participants and deliverables. Boards who understand it can hold contractors accountable at each stage rather than discovering gaps at the end.
Stage 1 — Rough inspections during construction
The first inspections occur while the repair is still open — before patch concrete is placed and before any surfaces are closed up. On a structural repair scope this typically includes a rebar inspection after demolition and rebar preparation but before the patch mortar is placed, confirming that the new steel, rust treatment, and repair hardware conform to the engineer's specification. For post-tension repair locations, a pre-pour inspection confirms anchor hardware and stressing documentation before concrete is placed. These rough inspections are the contractor's responsibility to schedule; the contractor calls the building department, the inspector visits the site, and the result is logged in the permit record. A failed rough inspection must be corrected and reinspected before work at that location can be covered. The contractor should be providing the board's project contact with inspection confirmation for each passed rough inspection as it occurs.
Stage 2 — Engineer of record interim field visits
Parallel to the building department's rough inspections, the engineer of record performs their own site visits at intervals defined in their scope of services. These are not permit inspections — they are the engineer's professional review of whether the work conforms to their repair specification. The engineer's interim visit reports document quantities installed, material submittals reviewed, field directives issued, and any nonconformances that require corrective action. These reports become part of the project documentation record and directly support the engineer's final re-inspection report at closeout. A project where the building department has been inspecting but the engineer of record has not visited is a project without independent technical oversight of whether the specified methods are being followed — and the gaps will appear when the engineer attempts to issue a re-inspection report they cannot fully support.
Stage 3 — Final inspection and engineer's re-inspection report
When physical work is complete, the permit requires a final inspection from the building department. On a structural repair scope permitted under Florida's building code, the building department's final sign-off is typically conditioned on the engineer of record having issued a re-inspection report. The engineer performs a final site walk, reviews the contractor's closeout documentation package — quantity logs, material data sheets, stressing records where applicable, photographic documentation — and issues a signed and sealed re-inspection report attesting that the repairs corrected the deficiencies identified in the original inspection or recertification report. The engineer's signature and seal is the professional attestation that the work meets code and specification. Without it, the building department cannot log the permit as complete for a structural repair scope. This is the document the contract must define as a deliverable tied to final payment — not something the contractor provides 'upon request' after they have been paid.
Stage 4 — Permit closeout and compliance file update
Once the final inspection is passed and the engineer's re-inspection report is accepted by the building department, the permit is formally closed in the department's records. For buildings subject to 40-year recertification or milestone inspection compliance, a parallel step is required: the engineer's re-inspection report must be filed with the county's compliance file, separate from the permit record but drawn from the same document. The board should request three documents as formal project closeout: the building department's final permit closeout confirmation, the engineer's signed and sealed re-inspection report, and written confirmation from the county that the compliance file has been updated. These three together are the board's proof that the structural repair scope was performed, inspected, approved, and counted toward the compliance obligation. A contractor who delivers two of the three and considers the project complete has left the board with an open compliance record.